Page 10 of A Cowboy in the Streets

“See, here’s the thing. We’d met before.”

Dad looked up sharply. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, this evening at the barn wasn’t the first time we met.”

“Then how come you didn’t know James was a woman? The name is too uncommon to be a coincidence. But I saw your face. You were shocked.”

I scratched my unshaven jaw. “It wasn’t the kind of situation where names were exchanged.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Dad pointed the wooden spoon at me. “Do not tell me you met her at some shady, rent-by-the-hour—”

“Dad, for heaven’s sake,” I said, exasperated. “Aspen Springs doesn’t have motels that rent rooms by the hour.”

Dad eyeballed me speculatively. “That’s the sort of thing a man wouldn’t know unless he tried.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Heaven grant me patience. “Dad.”

He grinned, unrepentant. “I’m just saying.”

“Well, I didn’t meet her at some shady motel. I met her at Jo’s, getting coffee.”

And then I told him all of it. Mostly. I left out the part where James walked in looking like sunshine and smelling like a memory, and the combination had been far too interesting to my dick. But the part about us smashing our faces together, yeah. I told him that.

A normal man might have understood that this was no laughing matter. Not my dad. No, he laughed himself sick. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he howled, gasping for breath, bracing his arms on the counter for support.

“I’m glad you find it funny,” I said. “Because I sure don’t.”

Dad pulled himself together, though it took effort. “Son, it’s hilarious. Quite frankly, the fact that you don’t think so makes me worry about you. You never laugh anymore. You never smile. Life is gonna knock us down time and again, that’s a fact. Nothing you can do except laugh about it. Why take everything so seriously?”

I ground my molars together. If I didn’t take things seriously, who would? Not Dad, clearly.

“But you understand why James isn’t going to work out, right? We can’t work together after that.”

“No, I don’t understand, as a matter of fact. She must have been every bit as embarrassed as you, but she still acted professional. If there’s a problem here, it’s your problem. And I know you’re not going to make your problem the ranch’s problem. Lodestar is struggling and you know that. We’re not going to pay James six months to not work just so you can save face.”

“I’m thirty-five, Dad. I don’t need a lecture about responsibility and duty.” Especially not when I had been the one to step up when he needed me the most.

“Good. Then you won’t have any problem with James coming to dinner tomorrow.”

I did have a problem with that. It was hard to put my finger on exactly what my problem was. Not embarrassment. It took a hell of a lot more than an accidental collision—even a collision involving our mouths—to make me blush. James was…an aggravation. Something about her seeped into my skin and made me itch. Like a sunburn.

Obviously, I couldn’t say that.

Dad turned his back to me to grab a beer from the fridge. I took the opportunity to flip him off. Because he was right and that was galling.

“I saw that,” he said, making me wonder if it was a lucky guess or he really did have eyes in the back of his head.

I made myself useful by setting the table for dinner. Three plates, three glasses of tap water, three sets of utensils. It didn’t take long, but it gave me a second to get my thoughts in order.

Six months. Longer, if she succeeded. And if she didn’t…well, then James would be the least of my problems. If James failed, so did the ranch. I didn’t have it in me to hope for that, not even a little bit. We needed James to succeed. Everyone was depending on me to make this happen. And dammit, I would. I would do whatever I could to help her succeed.

But that didn’t mean I had to like it.

Chapter 5

James

Mom

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